Q&A with Senior Solution Consultant Laura Jolly

1 December 2023

At Xledger we offer a consultative service to housing associations, supporting them through their finance transformation journeys as they implement our finance software. With our growing experience in the social housing sector, we caught up with Senior Solutions Consultant Laura Jolly, who has first-hand experience working within housing associations, to get her thoughts on some of the current leading themes for finance professionals working in the sector, including the challenges they’re facing with digital transformation, long-term planning over short-term fixes, and how to remain agile as an organisation.

Click to read the Q&A with Senior Solution Consultant Laura Jolly.

A timely exploration of the financial challenges (and opportunities) for housing associations

18 April 2023

Policy Officer, National Housing Federation

Troubling tailwinds have become hazardous headwinds, but housing associations remain resilient and ambitious throughout challenging times.

Our flagship Housing Finance Conference and Exhibition returned in emphatic style for another year in Liverpool. With impressive delegate and exhibitor numbers, high profile speakers and a packed and varied agenda, the bar has been set for future years.

Can low paid workers afford to retire in today’s world?

16 March 2023

Katy Taylor leads Isio’s public service team in the South and leads on housing nationally.

With people now expected to live 20 years plus in retirement, many are reliant on retirement savings for the equivalent of 50% of their working life – how can we, as employers, support them in saving enough? Our breakout session at this week’s Housing Finance Conference and Exhibition 2023 will explore one of the options available.

One fifth of today’s pensioners are living in relative poverty, this is despite the state pension and the historic provision of “gold-plated” defined benefit pensions. As much of the public and private sector move towards defined contribution pension provision, employees must answer the question “how much do I need to be saving?”

Supporting our colleagues’ financial wellbeing can be just as important as supporting their physical and mental wellbeing, supporting their retirement needs is part of this.

Auto-enrolment has led to thousands more saving towards their retirement, but are people saving enough? And with more people reducing or opting out of pension savings during the cost-of-living crisis, it begs the question - will the lowest paid workers be able to afford retirement?

Research by the Resolution Foundation has looked at the private pension income needed to fill the gap between the state pension and a minimum adequate standard of living. Their research found that 4 in 5 workers were not saving sufficiently to meet this level and less than 1 in 20 low paid workers is on track to meet the required income.

A new benchmark “The Living Pension” seeks to address this issue by setting cash and percentage contributions designed to make sure an employee earning the Real Living Wage can save enough to afford an acceptable standard of living in retirement.

On Wednesday 15 March, join us to explore how this new standard can be implemented across the housing sector and beyond. We will be asking and answering:

• How much is enough in retirement – how do we support our colleagues to set a retirement target and how may this vary across different people?
• How much needs to be saved - what savings rate is needed to meet this target? What level has the Living Pension been set at?
• How can this be implemented – why we, as employers, may want to implement the standard, how this can be done during a cost-of-living crisis and how this can be built into your wider reward strategy?

Joining us will be Living Wage Foundation who have built on the success of the Living Wage movement, which now has over 11,000 accredited employers and has lifted the pay of nearly 400,000 workers to the real Living Wage, to hear how they have developed the standard and why it is needed.

Plus Nathan Mallows of Coastline Housing, will share how they have approached the pilot and how as employers this can be implemented alongside the other needs facing the housing sector. .

Isio is the NHF’s appointed pension’s advisor. They have extensive experience of working with housing associations to provide high quality pensions and financial wellbeing information and guidance. You can learn more about Isio on our website.

Can you ever get rid of Service Charge Spreadsheets?

3 March 2023

Dan is a Service Charges Lead at Ad Esse Consulting

There are numerous challenges when it comes to managing large service charge portfolios on spreadsheets. Errors and instability mean that professionals often wonder whether they should remove service charge spreadsheets from their processes.

But is it possible to get rid of them altogether? And even if you can, should you?

How to get the most out of networking

27 January 2023

Emma is events manager at the National Housing Federation.

If you’re beginning your career in social housing, one of the most powerful things you can do is to meet other people in the sector.

Your peers can be a source of support in hard times, inspire you with new ideas, and provide guidance.

However, it can be difficult to know how to approach networking.

In the lead up to our Housing Finance Conference and Exhibition, taking place on 15-16 March at the ACC in Liverpool, Emma shares some of her top networking tips to help you get the most out of it.